In every presidential election, there are battleground states and spectator states. How does campaign attention affect voter turnout? We took a closer look at the causal relationship by focusing on states that have changed from battlegrounds to spectators and vice versa.

With the 2014 midterm elections almost upon us, FairVote takes time out to compare several pundits' forecasts of the US House results with our own Monopoly Politics projections. In doing so, we demonstrate the endemic lack of competition for US House seats.

Analysis of voter turnout in Montgomery County, MD, illustrates the disparities in turnout among various age groups as well as significantly decreased participation in primaries compared to general elections. These findings strengthen the case for changes recommended by the County's Right To Vote Task Force.

With the midterm elections approaching, many analysts are suggesting that our usually low midterm turnout may dip even lower despite these elections drawing more spending than any midterm election in history. Yet as we've seen in Ferguson (MO), the problem is even worse in local elections – not only in numbers, but in equity in areas such as age and race that raise serious questions about the disengagement of a growing number of Americans from their municipal governments.

Last week, FairVote filed an amicus curiae (friend of the Court) brief in Montes v. City of Yakima, a case brought against the city of Yakima, WA under the Voting Rights Act. You can read the brief here.

Brazilians flocked to the polls on October 5, 2014, to vote for their next president. Yet, after all the votes were counted, no one was elected. This blog entry briefly explores the use of runoff elections in Brazil before discussing the growing worldwide movement to repeat Brazil's enfranchisement of 16 and 17 year olds.

The 2014 midterm elections are upon us. How will women candidates fair? Using Monopoly Politics 2014 projections, we find that the U.S. House will not move much closer to gender parity in 2014. If this election is indicative of a trend (and it seems to be), Representation 2020 reforms offer a faster path to gender parity.

Ranked choice voting (RCV) ballots are already being cast by some early and absentee voters in the four Bay Area cities holding RCV elections this November. Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro, and San Francisco will all be holding RCV elections on November 4th. In light of the upcoming elections, we wanted to share a few facts about ranked choice voting.